“Well, what would you do?” asked Philip.
“Do!” cried Chap, with sparkling eyes. “I’d do everything! I’d have all the fellows here. I’d give the biggest kind of picnics. I’d camp out, right here in front of the house. I’d put a mast in your uncle’s scow, and buy a sail for her. I’d dig up the old wreck, and I’d have fireworks every night. Do!” he added. “You’d soon see what I’d do!”
“Yes,” said Philip, laughing, “and I’d soon see you stop doing, too. A pretty steward you’d make!”
“Phil,” said Chap, suddenly changing his manner, “how long do you think he’s going to stay away?”
“I don’t know any more about it than you do,” said Phil. “There’s his letter, and that’s all there is to go by.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what it is, Phil,” said Chap, very earnestly, “if your uncle stays away long enough, there are big things ahead. You know he said you were to have fun.”
CHAPTER III.
OLD BRUDEN MAKES A MOVE.
Chap Webster did not stay very long at Hyson Hall.
“If the trip is to be given up,” he said to Phil, “I must go home and tell mother to take the things out of my basket. There’s no use letting them spoil, and the children might as well eat them. And, besides that, I’ve got a lot to think about. I tell you what it is, Phil, there’s a stack of responsibility about this thing.”